“The submissions from this year are representative of how quality urban open space has become more than just an amenity for cities,” said jury chair Michael Covarrubias. “The international diversity of the projects is reflective of how developers continually work to meet global demand by the public for the inclusion of healthy places in cities.” See all of the finalists after the break.

The 3.5km long waterfront promenade features two pedestrian bridges that encircles a 48ha waterbody. It generates a ‘water piazza’, that becomes a meeting place and focal point for celebrations and activities.

The park represents a model for successful regeneration right at the urban core providing a place for Chicagoans and tourists to enjoy a broad variety of free public events through an engaging community experience.

A joint investment effort takes a highly-underused yet prime 15-acre urban downtown garden and park site that had fallen into disrepair, and turns it into a state-of-the-art, highly active destination to improve the quality of life in Oklahoma City and continue the renaissance of the entire downtown.

The park system represents a defining infrastructural effort that is integral to Nanhai’s strategic approach of urban transformation with a successful, people-oriented urban development that provides creative solutions for attracting people to its newly constructed Guangdong Financial High-tech Industrial Zone.

The project embodies a new type of urban landscape that is active, innovative, resource-conscious, and natural. Shaped by extensive public participation, the design creates a contemporary and transformative series of gardens and active spaces that symbolically redefine and interconnect the center of Santa Monica.

One of the first parks built as part of the District's Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, the park is located on 3 acres of a former parking lot for district school buses, and has been transformed into a model of sustainability, a social gathering place, and an economic trigger for the surrounding neighborhood.

Jury:

Chair: Michael Covarrubias, TMG Partners

Vice-Chair: M. Leanne Lachman, Lachman Associates

Terrall Vern Budge, Loci

Dr. Sujata S. Govada, UDP International

Jason Hellendrung, Sasaki Associates

Sophie Henley-Price, STUDIOS

Lance K. Josal, Callison RTKL

Jeff Kingsbury, Greenstreet Ltd.

Jacinta McCann, AECOM

Steve Navarro, CBRE

Trini M. Rodriguez, ParkerRodriguez, Inc.

The winning project will be announced between October 5-8, 2015 at the ULI Fall Meeting. The individual or organization most responsible for the creation of the winning project will receive a $10,000 cash prize. The award was created by Amanda M. Burden, former New York City Planning Commissioner, and continued in 2011 by the Kresge Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and the ULI Foundation.